1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is effectively applied to a technique for loading a cartridge, particularly a magnetic tape cartridge, into a drive unit. More specifically, the present invention relates to a drive system equipped with an autoloader mechanism, and an autoloading device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this type of technique for loading a cartridge into a drive unit known is a cartridge autoloading device having a mechanism in which a unit capable of accommodating a plurality of cartridges is provided at an insertion/ejection port side of a general-purpose drive unit so that these cartridges may be selectively loaded into the drive unit.
FIG. 2 is an example of system overview of a typical cartridge autoloading device.
In this figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a drive unit where data in a cartridge 22 mounted therein can be read and written under a control from a host device.
An autoloading device 24 includes a magazine 25 capable of accommodating the cartridge in tiers. While a carrier unit 26 is guided by a guide rail 27 to move up and down in the autoloading device, it can selectively remove the cartridge 22 from the magazine 25 and accommodate it therein. In other words, the carrier unit 26 serves to selectively load the cartridge 22 into the drive unit 21 from the magazine 25 and return the cartridge 22 ejected from the drive unit 21 to the magazine 25.
In this arrangement, for replacement of the cartridge 22 in the drive unit 21, the carrier unit 26 in a standby mode at an insertion/ejection port 21a of the drive unit 21 receives the cartridge horizontally ejected from the drive unit 21, and the carrier unit 26 elevates and lowers up to a predetermined position in height where the cartridge 22 is returned to a certain empty tier of the magazine 25 positioned at the side opposite to the drive unit 21.
Also, when a new cartridge is loaded into the drive unit 21, the carrier unit 26 receives the cartridge 22 from the magazine 25, and elevates/lowers to the position at the insertion/ejection port 21a of the drive unit 21 where the cartridge 22 held by the carrier unit 26 is then ejected to the drive unit 21 side to thereby load the cartridge into the drive unit 21.
Therefore, in both cases of returning and loading the cartridge 22, a series of the following operations must be repeated: horizontally retracting/advancing the cartridge, elevating/lowering the carrier unit, and then horizontally retracting/advancing the cartridge again. This involves complicated steps, making the structures of the carrier unit 26 and the drive unit 21 complicated, and requires sufficient space to install the entire system.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-stated problems, and its technical object is to achieve a drive system having a simple structure in which a cartridge can be supplied or replaced in small installation space.
In order to solve the foregoing technical problems, according to the present invention, a drive unit is positioned beneath a cartridge autoloading device so that the number of steps for conveying a cartridge between a magazine and the drive unit may be reduced.
More specifically, a carrier unit structure is employed in which a cartridge is horizontally retracted from a magazine capable of horizontally inserting/removing the cartridge and then held therein. Further, a drive unit is located beneath the carrier unit, and the cartridge held in the carrier unit is released so that the cartridge can be dropped and loaded into the drive unit.
Further, the magazine itself is rotated about the pivot portion and falls down to the outside of the drive unit to expose a cartridge receiving section to the external. This allows the magazine or the cartridge received within the magazine to be easily replaced.